Instructions

ZOOM IN by clicking on the page. A slider will appear, allowing you to adjust your zoom level. Return to the original size by clicking on the page again.

MOVE the page around when zoomed in by dragging it.

ADJUST the zoom using the slider on the top right.

ZOOM OUT by clicking on the zoomed-in page.

SEARCH by entering text in the search field and click on "In This Issue" or "All Issues" to search the current issue or the archive of back issues
respectively.
.

PRINT by clicking on thumbnails to select pages, and then press the
print button.

SHARE this publication and page.

ROTATE PAGE allows you to turn pages 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.Click on the page to return to the original orientation. To zoom in on a rotated page, return the page to its original orientation, zoom in, and
then rotate it again.

CONTENTS displays a table of sections with thumbnails and descriptions.

ALL PAGES displays thumbnails of every page in the issue. Click on
a page to jump.

www.independentweekly.com.au
11
The Independent Weekly
August 13 - 19, 2010
international
Including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Independent and AAP
MOSCOW: Radiation levels
near Chernobyl could rise
and pose long-term health
dangers as deadly forest fires
spread to land contaminated
by the world s largest
nuclear-reactor disaster, say
Russian environmentalists.
The flames are being
fanned by the hottest
weather in the region in 1000
years.
"This is radiation that will
be dangerous for the local
population living near the
fires and firefighters manag-
ing the fires," said Vladimir
Chuprov, head of Greenpeace
Russia s energy unit.
"What is not clear is what
could be the danger of the
combined radiation effect
and toxic effect of the smog.
No one knows how these
effects multiply each other."
If the weather situation
changes, particularly with
heavy winds, the toxic smoke
could blow westward, he
warned. However, he added:
"Moscow and the EU states
are out of the risk zone."
Radioactive residue from
the explosion at Chernobyl, a
massive nuclear power plant
in Ukraine, continues to line
the earth in Ukraine, Belarus
and western Russia. Experts
have been warning for more
than a week that the fires
that have blanketed much
of western Russia in thick
smoke could stir nuclear
debris from the accident,
adding a potentially deadly
pollutant to the carbon
monoxide-thick smog.
But as officials admitted
the fires had reached areas
affected by fallout from the
1986 nuclear explosion, they
insisted that there was no
reason to panic.
Russia s chief
sanitary official, Gennady
Onishchenko, criticised
environmentalists for
raising alarm over the
nuclear issue. "There is no
need to sow panic," he said.
"Everything is fine."
The Russian emergencies
ministry said it had increased
forest patrols around
Bryansk, the western region
that lies close to Chernobyl,
and that its efforts to battle
the flames there were largely
successful.
"There is a danger, but
we are controlling the
situation," said Vladimir
Rozinkevich of the Bryansk
Forest Protection Service.
But Russians are growing
weary of official statements,
with the Kremlin having a
long history of downplaying
disasters in a bid to appear in
control.
This week, state-run
television aired footage of
Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin co-piloting a firefight-
ing jet and pressing a button
to spill 24 tonnes of water
over burning land.
More than 600 fires
continue to burn across
Russia. The acrid smoke
that has choked Moscow
lifted yesterday, but weather
officials warned it would
likely return by the end of
the week. Officially, 52 people
have died in the fires, but with
reports of several villages
destroyed, many believe the
death toll will be much higher.
SUKKUR: There is little left
in Rajanpur, one of the
southern Punjab districts
worst affected by Pakistan s
floods.
"Everyone s lost
everything," said Shehryar
Mazari, a landlord from
the area. "We tried to save
our homes, our lands; they
are now a part of the Indus
(river)."
The only areas that
endured the deluge were
Umarkot and Rojan. There, a
local provincial parliamen-
tarian diverted the civilian
administration to protect his
own lands, leaving the rest of
the area vulnerable.
Mr Mazari s 80ha are now
submerged, a fate he shares
with many other landowners
across Pakistan s wealthiest
and largest province, where
agriculture accounts for
more than a quarter of the
economy and employs half
its workforce.
"Cotton is our main export
crop," said Mr Mazari.
"Southern Punjab is known
as the cotton-belt. That s all
gone now.
"We need wheat seed to
be able to grow wheat at the
end of the season, but that s
gone too.
"We are the ones feeding
Pakistan. What will happen
now?"
He would have also
grown sugarcane, but water
shortages throughout the
past year prevented him from
doing so.
In a wretched irony,
Pakistan s floods came after
several parched months.
The United Nations
yesterday appealed for $503
million in emergency aid
following the floods, at the
same time the Taliban was
denouncing foreign help.
Pakistan says 14 million
people face direct or indirect
harm, while the UN has
warned that children are
among the most vulnerable,
with diarrhoea the biggest
health threat and measles a
concern.
The UN believes 1600
people have died in the
floods, while Pakistan has
confirmed 1243 deaths.
Mr Mazari said the disaster
could have been mitigated if
officials had not played down
the scale of the flooding that
was to submerge them.
"I don t know why politi-
cians lie, but they did.
"If we had known how
bad it was going to be, we
would have evacuated people
in time, but now we have
women and children hanging
in the trees, waiting for
rescue."
The rescue effort came
with people buying boats and
dispatching them to mount
rescue efforts.
"The army only turned
up on Sunday," Mr
Mazari added. "As for the
Government, there s no sign
of it."
He said decades of neglect,
corruption and inefficiency,
mostly under military
dictatorships, meant that
the scale of the disaster was
much larger than it should
have been.
"The tragedy of Pakistan
is that everyone s fattening
their accounts, while no
one gives a damn about the
average Pakistani."
WASHINGTON: Scientists
have discovered a new
species of titi monkey in the
Colombian Amazon, but it is
struggling to survive.
Researchers from the
National University of
Colombia who discovered
the new primate (Callicebus
caquetensis) consider it to be
critically endangered due
to rapid loss of the forest
where it lives and its small
population.
The discovery was made
by professors Thomas
Defler and Marta Bueno
and student Javier Garc a,
after an expedition to the
Department of Caquet ,
close to the border with
Ecuador and Peru.
Conservation
International, which
announced the discovery,
said for many years it was
impossible to travel to
Caquet because of the
presence of insurgent
groups. When violence
subsided about three years
ago, Garc a was able to
travel to the upper Caquet
River.
Using GPS, searching on
foot and listening for calls,
he found 13 groups of the
new species.
Titi monkeys (or zogui
zogui, as they are called in
Spanish) have one of the
most complex calls in the
animal kingdom, which
they use their call every
morning to mark their
territory.
"This discovery is
extremely exciting because
we had heard about this
animal, but for a long time
we could not confirm if it
was different from other
titis," Dr Defler said.
"We now know that this
is a unique species, and it
shows the rich diversity
of life that is still to be
discovered in the Amazon."
The Callicebus caquetensis
isthesizeofacat.Ithas
grayish-brown hair and a
bushy red beard around its
cheeks.
Unlike most primates,
Caquet titi monkeys (and
probably all titi monkeys)
are monogamous -- they
form life-long relationships,
and pairs are often seen
sitting on a branch with
their tails entwined.
It is estimated fewer than
250 Caquet titi monkeys
exist due to the degradation
of the forests in the area,
which have been felled for
agricultural land.
It is dangerous for the
animals to move to other
patches of forest as they
have to cross grassy savan-
nah or barbed wire fences to
reach them.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil will
officially record any UFO
sightings in its vast airspace
and make the information
available to researchers,
according to a government
decree published this
week.
The text calls on military
and civilian pilots and
air traffic controllers to
lodge any experiences with
unidentified flying objects
with the Aerospace Defence
Command in Brasilia,
along with any photos or
video.
That evidence will be
catalogued at the air force s
Historic Documentation
Centre in Rio de Janeiro
state, where it will be made
available to searchers of
extraterrestrial life and
other people interested.
The decree, published
this week, was signed by
air force chief Juniti Saito.
"Air force command does
not have the specialised
structure needed to
carry out scientific inves-
tigations on these aerial
phenomena and will only
register the events," the air
force said.
A military air controller
in Rio said "respectable
witnesses" had previously
recounted experiences with
UFOs.
"There are reports
by ministers and even a
president who saw a UFO,"
he said.
Unidentified: A "flying object"
snapped in Brazil.
Russian fires follow
dangerous path
Flood disaster highlights Pakistan class divide
Brazilians
keep a
keen eye
on UFOs
New monkey species in fight for survival
Caught in headlights: Researchers have discovered a new species of titi monkey.